31 March, 2007

Day Thirteen: On the Sands of the Sahara


Camel trek time! We got up super early to get to the meeting spot by 7:00am, piled into a mini-van, and hit the road. The drive to the desert took around 7 hours, including a stop for lunch and many short stops along the way.









The Atlas mountains were beautiful!












It was nice to be able to get coffee, tea, and snacks, and hit the restroom periodically.











Tourist traps exist even in the most remote places!










Here are some pictures of the locals...


















I think this was actually built as part of a movie set.












Some more locals.





























Finally we arrived in Zagora and met our camels and our guides, Mohammed and Abraham/Ibrahim.

Here's Nova looking smart and sassy.











Sunny looks like she's off to the races.







Taylor looks a little photoshopped here, but I swear it's authentic!














Not quite Arabian Nights, but pretty darn close. Except for the part where we saw a shiny black Mercedes drive by about an hour into our journey...







These were our sleeping quarters in the berber tent.

Our guides made us dinner, and after observing a persistent, deep, bone-rattling cough, along with bare-handed toe picking (knowing with certainty that there were no washing facilities), we were frankly a little nervous.








But a cozy moonlit drum circle before hitting the sack helped calm any fears of illness or food poisoning and we all went to sleep without too much trouble.

2 comments:

Jesse said...

Brilliant!

Truly, you capture the essence of camel-riding to a Tee. Quite the adventure you guys had, I must say. I'm envious, sore rump and all.

Unknown said...

They had a show about camels on TV last night. I am so jealous right now.

 

DeepThoughtsByJackHandey.com